Retired rabbi Randall Falk's civil rights legacy grew from sit-ins

He died Sunday at age 92

Jan. 21, 2014

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Randall Falk / File / The Tennessean

Funeral service

The service will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday at The Temple, 5015 Harding Road.

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Rabbi Randall Falk, whose unflagging empathy helped him become a moral beacon for civil rights activists of 1960, religious leaders of many faiths and generations of Jewish congregants, died Sunday in Brentwood.

He was 92.

Nashville community leaders paused to honor his legacy amid a flurry of parades and speeches on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

“He was really a giant in this community,” said Councilman Ronnie Steine, who grew up under Rabbi Falk’s tutelage at The Temple — Congregation Ohabai Sholom. “Randall Falk really is part of an elite group of people that helped Nashville grow to be the place it is.”

Rabbi Falk arrived in Nashville in 1960, when African-American students were embroiled in a battle to integrate the city’s lunch counters. The white clergyman joined their sit-ins and challenged his congregation to see their fight for civil rights as an extension of the struggles of Jewish people.

He led clergymen of different faiths on a march to city hall in support of equal rights. He was also a founding member of the Metro Human Relations Commission, a group created in 1965 to encourage civil rights.

Rabbi Falk served as senior rabbi at The Temple from 1960 to 1986. He was rabbi emeritus at the time of his death.

“He really held up a mirror of morality to our congregants,” said Rabbi Mark Schiftan, The Temple’s current senior rabbi. “That was a very hard-fought and not simply overnight battle.”

“Rabbi Falk stood up when the good people of Nashville really needed to stand up,” Bone said. “He proved to this city that change can happen. And he not only stood up in the ’60s but in the ’70s and the ’80s and the ’90s. He was a great man of God.”

“He was a person who got involved with different kinds of people in an era when that was very unpopular,” he said. “If this city is to be great, every faith-based social agent must look at the life of people like Randall Falk.’’

Rabbi Falk has received numerous honors for his activism. Most recently, he was honored by the Jewish Federation of Nashville and Middle Tennessee during a Freedom Seder in April.

“His impact not only was felt in Nashville but it was felt across the country,” said Mark Freedman, executive director of the federation. “He was able to link the tremendous struggles of the Jewish people to those of the civil rights movement.”

Beyond the civil rights movement, Rabbi Falk also worked to improve relationships between different religious groups in Nashville.

“If you talked with Rabbi Falk for just a minute you became his friend,” Freedman said. “Each person’s story was something that he wanted to hear.”

He is survived by Edna U. Falk, his wife of more than 60 years, two of their children and four grandchildren.